'Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters' Critical Movie Review by Alvina Singh

This is a movie critique on Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters. It is based on the second book of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. Let me just say: this movie was absolutely HORRIBLE. It is completely sans anything that was written in the book. Very inaccurate, just like the first movie. I believe that when someone is trying to make a movie based on a book, it should emulate the book, not take it and change just about all of it. I think if the producers and directors of this movie had a steadfast determination to create this movie in hopes of making people like it, they would have done a much better job. I mean, anybody could watch the Harry Potter movies, read the books, and say the movies were practically perfect, describing every book cover to cover.

Here are some examples on how kitsch the movie is. One of the characters, a satyr named Grover, never physically shows up in the book until near the end and after, because the entire book is basically about trying to save him and getting an object that will save Percy’s home. But in the movie, he is still present, only has to get saved because he gets ambushed in a New York alley by people working for the antagonist while taking a little jaunt to NYC with Percy and his friend, Annabeth. Perhaps they did that to make the movie more pretentious, but it definitely did not and was very wrong.

Another thing is that the ages and appearances of the characters are all wrong. In the book, Percy is 13. But the actor for Percy, Logan Lerman, was 18. The other actors/actresses were also older than they were supposed to be. It's true, many actors are much older than who they are acting as, because it's pragmatic that you can’t always find the right age and looks. But at least they make it believable. In this movie, it was obvious to anyone that they are much older than they are supposed to be. I don’t mean to censure all those talented actors, but I am truly sorry you got dragged into such a horrible film.

So many parts were missing and gone wrong. This was the book where Percy had battled and defeated a hydra for the first time. In the movie, it never happens, and somehow already happened in the first movie! There are so many bonding moments and funny parts that show rapport between characters that never happen. Kronos, the entire book series’ main bad guy, doesn’t physically show up until the fourth or fifth book. But it somehow happens at the end of the second movie. Annabeth apparently dies for a minute during that part too, and gets received by the object they were looking for, the Golden Fleece.

Before either this movie or the first movie had come out, everyone was looking forward to an auspicious release. After all, Chris Columbus, the director of the first two movies of Harry Potter and the producer of the third, was supposed to be the director of the first film. But fans, such as myself, were shocked by this egregious and ignominious movie. The second movie was directed by Thor Freudenthal, but was equally bad, if not even more.

This definitely isn’t impartial to Rick Riordan, the author of the book. He was thoroughly disappointed when the movies came out. He even gave a tweet saying that he has not watched the movies, and doesn’t plan on ever doing so. He was very frustrated and chagrined, as said in another tweet, saying, “Well, to you guys, it’s a couple of hours entertainment. To me, it’s my life’s work going through a meat grinder.” When a teacher tweeted that she showed The Sea of Monsters to her students, he wrote, “No. Stop. Please. No class deserves such a punishment. I mourn the loss of perfectly good class time.”

On his website, on a page where he wrote about his experience with the movies, he wrote that the filmmakers have paramount power over the making of movies, much more than the authors do. While making the first movie, they had come to him for advice from time to time, but mainly did the entire thing themselves even when Rick had tried to help out as much as he could when he was offered. Apparently, near the end of making the movie, he simply stopped being involved to get a peace in mind. The second movie was a whole other story that he didn’t even try to start on. This only validates my point on how scandalous this movie is.

After the second movie, the making of Percy Jackson was terminated. From the disappointment of the second movie, they decided to stop. But now, there is some good news. Disney+ has decided to act in a concert with Rick Riordan and develop a brand new TV series for Percy Jackson and the Olympians, this time with a fresh start and much contribution from the actual author. Hopefully, when they start coming out, it will be an occasion of great jubilation. Rick has already made multiple jaunts to LA to work on the movies. This will be a fresh start for the failures of the previous movies.